The Pirate and the Theif
by Frukfan1221
Summary: Infamous thief Arthur Kirkland can't pass up the chance he gets when he finds a seemingly empty pirate ship. Unfortunately, on the ship is about the last pirate who Arthur would want to be caught by- Captain Francis Bonnefoy. With Arthur trapped on an unfamiliar ship, and the Captain's obvious crush on the lad, what could possibly go wrong? [FrUK] (Warning: contains smut & yaoi)
1. The Ship

It wasn't just any day that you got the chance to steal hundreds of gold coins from a near empty pirate's ship.

In fact, it was quite rare that one would get the chance to do something like that.

Allow me to back up a bit.  
>Arthur Kirkland, infamous thief of the British empire, had gained his title rather quickly once he woke up in an alley with only memories of his name and the short event that led him to that place. He had to learn very fast how to pick someone's pocket, how to steal from a shop, how to break into a home and grab all of the valuable items inside...<br>He had picked up the skill quickly, and guessed that whatever he was before was someone who needed to prowl around silently a lot, because his footsteps were barely audible even when he wasn't trying. Though his lock picking wasn't too great at first, that was another skill he learned quickly with his quick fingers and sneaky motions.  
>At this point, Arthur had even broken into the home of her Majesty herself- and although he'd been caught then, he escaped their dungeons through a minuscule window high in the concrete wall.<br>Arthur had no doubt that taking gold from some practically deserted ship would be a piece of cake.

He was wearing his disguise for once, clothing he used to go out in public. While wearing the disguise he wasn't noticeable until you got up close, because of the typical white shirt, brown jacket, and brown pants. It fit in fine with the pirates too, seeing as everyone but the captain wore whatever rags they had lying around.

Arthur neared the ship, walking along the street as if to go to a store, until he turned toward the docks, suddenly feeling out of place. He rarely just casually strolled up to the place he was about to rob- normally he was sneaky. Stealthy, as a robber should be./span/p

He only really hesitated once he got to the stairs leading up to the ship. He had never been on a ship, and the unfamiliarity was taking its toll on him. But he only paused for a second, and by the time he got to the ship's deck his courage was back and his brain was working once more. He didn't understand why he didn't see anyone on deck, but for all he knew it was some pirate superstition or something. He thanked his lucky stars and made his way to what looked like the entrance to the lower decks. He hurried over to it, glad for the obvious entrance and also for the lack of people. Though his luck began to fade as he pulled the trap door open.

It wasn't bad at first- he heard the voices and knew that he would need to be much more careful. He peered down the ladder, hanging over the edge to get a better view of where everyone was before just launching himself down the hatch. He only got a quick glance at five men sitting at a round table playing cards. One of the men glanced up and looked dead at him, and Arthur quickly pulled his head up as he heard a voice yell, "Oi!" And then the clatter of a chair falling over as someone stood up too fast._ Should've listened for voices first, you idiot._ He thought, mentally scolding himself.

Arthur quickly glanced around, spotting a few barrels here and there. Ideally they'd be perfect hiding spots, but the barrels were bound to be full of food or water or something. Arthur quickly ran over to a gathering of crates between two doors. He pulled one of the doors open and then slammed it quickly and loudly before jumping behind the original pile of crates- the noise of the door would be plenty to distract them.

There was a lot of noise as the five men hurried up the ladder, and Arthur didn't chance peeking out to look again. "I heard a door slam!" A deep voice shouted with a heavy English accent.

"Yeah, I heard it too!" The original guy said back quickly.

"Over here, probably!" Yet another voice said, also in an English accent, and multiple pairs of feet clomped by as they ran to the door. Arthur quietly tightened the jacket closer around him, hoping it'd be at least a little camouflage.

"Wait!" A fourth voice shouted as the door opened, and had a British accent like the rest. "Someone should guard each of the doors." They said.

There was a quarrel about who had to stay, and then the scurrying of feet as the rest ran off.

At that point Arthur peeked at the doors- the guards were standing outside the doors, backs up against them. Arthur scowled, formulating a plan of attack.

Suddenly, Arthur launched out from the crates at the waist of the guy on his right, knocking him over and punching the guy in the stomach before snatching his sword from his belt from the moment of distraction. The other pirate was rushing up behind Arthur, but Arthur turned and pointed the sword at the pirate. The pirate snarled, and lunched at Arthur. While Arthur was adept to fighting with a dagger, swords were new to him and the lack of experience showed as he attempted to duel with the pirate.

The pirate, as Arthur noticed, never really went for killing blows- only slices of the hands and arms, or shallow gashes. Never something that would've killed him.

_Who knows why, probably another pirate religion thing_. Arthur thought. He barely dodged a hit that very easily could've taken off three or four fingers of his right hand.

Arthur leapt forward to jab at the stomach of the one he was fighting, then dove towards the trap door as the pirate on the ground suddenly yelled, "He's out here! Quick!"

He knew his best option now was to run and hide, so he hopped down through the trap door that the pirates had forgotten to close. He glanced around the room, seeing three doors he could go through, two on one wall and one on the opposite wall. Arthur rushed to the door on his left, pulling it open to reveal a dining area that had lots of pirates scattered around eating bowls of food.

Arthur closed the door before any of them looked up, or so he hoped. He ran to the other door on the left wall, only a few feet from the first door. Arthur figured it'd probably be the kitchen, and he wasn't surprised to see someone putting out a cooking fire.

At this point, the pirates were coming down the ladder and Arthur needed to move. He ran into the kitchen, and the person at the fire shouted something in French as he rushed by, running through a door that most likely lead into the cafeteria. _Have to move quickly._ Arthur thought, and threw open the door, ignoring the shouts from the people eating and ran to the nearest door.

It revealed a corridor full of doors, three on each side and a dead end at the finish. Arthur ran to one of them on his right- the farthest one- to find a hallway that forked. _This place is a bloody maze and I doubt it's a mistake..._ Arthur thought angrily, but went down the hall, quietly closing the door behind him and continuing on down the hallway as fast as possible without making any noise. He heard shouts from behind him, and he came across a set of two doors. _Why couldn't there just be a sign saying 'immeasurable amounts of gold this way'? That'd be appreciated!_ Arthur thought.

He chose a door, and as he continued through it was a dead end, only with a door that led to supplies. _Old ones, by the smell.._. He grumpily back tracked, and heard footsteps nearing him. He quickly exited the dead end he was in and entered the other door from the pair he'd come across before.

This hallway was longer, and there were lots of turns to go through. Arthur chose to stick to the main hall until his only options were left or right, and he decided left. He got to the end of the hall and there was a single door._That's almost **too** easy..._ Arthur thought, trying the door handle to find that it was locked. _Well, lucky I came prepared._ Arthur thought, reaching into the small pouch on his hip containing his lock picks. Arthur pulled out a pick as a particularly large wave rocked the ship. Or Arthur assumed it had, the sudden lurch couldn't mean anything else. He'd never been on a boat before, but it wasn't hard to guess what was happening.

He continued his lock picking, and was surprised to find that the door took much longer than expected. When he finally opened the door- a few picks had even broken in the process- he pushed the door open and his eyes widened. It was a room with gold. Not lots of it, as Arthur had expected, but enough that Arthur could steal enough to feed him for a week or two along with buy new clothes and some new blankets for the small home he was currently staying in. He never stayed anywhere long, but this one had been his place for quite a while now. A whole 8 days at this point.

Arthur ran into the room, grabbing a handful of gold and shoving it in his pouch, then as many more coins as he could fit in the pouch before he began filling up the pockets of his jacket.

His jacket was full in no time, but he had one last hiding place, and that was a minuscule pouch inside the lining of his pants that barely held anything- and barely needed to. Arthur slipped three coins in there, which fit snugly with the two lock picks already inside the bag.

He decided that was all he could carry, and began to leave the room of gold, exiting the door and making his way back the way he'd come. It wasn't too difficult a route- or so he thought. He got lost multiple times, and it was probably an hour before he got himself to the right door and was back to the corridor of doors that led to the cafeteria. He stopped right outside the door, listening for voices. There weren't any that he could hear, so Arthur made his way through the door, to see that the dining room was completely abandoned. Arthur thanked his luckiness again, only to realize once he got through the cafeteria and to the card room where everyone probably was. He began up the ladder, creaking the trap door open to look around the main deck to see dozens of people walking around up there.

_It's okay, if I make a run for it, I can escape._ Arthur thought, and launched out of the trap door to rush towards the ramp leading out of the ship. He was forced to stop, however, once he reached the place where the ramp lead off onto the dock. Because there was no dock. Or ramp. In fact, when he looked back towards the docks he barely saw them anymore at all.

He didn't think about the pirate army behind him. All he could think about was how the hell he'd get home. Of course, this wasn't exactly good for him, because a few seconds later a sharp pain shot through the back of his head, and Arthur fell unconscious.


	2. The Captain

Arthur woke up slowly, at first only able to tell that he had woken up because of the in comfortable position he felt his body was in.

He was sitting up, his back up against a support beam, with his hands chained behind him. His legs were sprawled across the floor in no particular position, and he was slouching, his head hanging down with his chin almost touching his chest. He found it incredibly hard to open his eyes, and when he finally was able to force his eyelids apart his vision was blurred. His head throbbed dully where he'd been hit, and the harder he tried to focus his vision, the worse the pain got.

It took an unbelievable amount of time for Arthur to be able to focus his vision, and once he finally was able to focus, he began to lift his head. The act of lifting his head took great effort, and his vision faltered, but he quickly lifted his head all the way, and then leaned it against the pole behind him for support.

He had his eyes closed, so that he could try to let the pain in his head fade faster. He heard someone stand up, and then exit the room. Arthur continued to let the throbbing of his head subside, and when it did he finally opened his eyes to look around the room- slowly, of course.

The room had only one door that Arthur could see, and that was a door in the wall in front of Arthur, placed in the right corner. The wall to Arthur's right had a porthole, and the wall on his left had a table pushed up against it, with two chairs. One of the chairs was pulled out and facing Arthur, the other pushed under the table. Arthur didn't try to look behind him, just kept his head in place for the time being. Arthur suddenly realized that he didn't have his jacket, and that he didn't feel the weight of the pouch around his waist. He couldn't tell if his secret pouch was there; it was too light to notice anyways.

It was a few minutes before the door opened again, and in that time Arthur's headache was mostly gone, and Arthur had managed to look around the room and see that the "support beam" he was chained to was in the center of the room- it was too much like an interrogation room in the palace to be ignored.

The pirate who'd been in the room before held the door open, and a much better dressed pirate entered the room. Arthur looked up at the pirate, and internally groaned. He knew exactly who this was, and it was probably the last pirate whose ship he'd have wanted to get caught on.

"_Bonjour_." Francis said, looking down at Arthur with a holier-than-thou smirk on his face. It made it look like Francis was about to announce how he'd just won a game of cards.

Meet Captain Francis Bonnefoy, a famous pirate from France, who is known to constantly sail English waters to stock up on supplies. While having committed many crimes in France, he hadn't committed a single crime in England, so he used that to his advantage. Of course, the English didn't like him any more than the French did, but unlike the French, they didn't have anything to hold him for.

Along with all of that, Captain Francis was known to be a sexaholic- he went through men and women alike in the blink of an eye. Worse than that, the people he made love to typically disappeared off the face of the planet.

Francis waved his hand and the pirate holding the door nodded, closing the door and exiting the room. Francis sat down in the chair, crossing his legs and leaning back, his blue eyes staring down at Arthur.

"'Ello..." Arthur said, because of the expectant look Francis was giving him.

At that, Francis' face broke into another holier-than-thou smirk, and he nodded.

"Arthur Kirkland." He said in his heavy accent.

"Francis Bonnefoy." Arthur said, mostly to keep the conversation going, though also to say, 'yeah, I know who you are too. So what?'

"_Captain_ Francis Bonnefoy, _se vous plaît_." He said, and then leaned forward in his seat. "Tell me, Arthur... Why did you come into my ship and try take my gold? You obviously know who I am." Francis said, knowing that Arthur knew about Francis' reputation as well- Francis knew that mixed look of anger and envy very well.

"I know you, not your ship." Arthur replied shortly.

"Ah, of course." Francis leaned back in his ship. "And you expected to... What? Jump off the ship and swim back to shore?" Francis asked, and Arthur wanted to slap him for his obvious arrogance.

"Of course not. I didn't know the ship was even moving." Arthur snapped. He had decided before Francis got there that he would be open with any information that wouldn't get him into any more didn't want to chance Francis finding out about a lie he told.

"You have never been on a ship before?" Francis asked, his eyes showing true curiosity.

"Not that I recall." Arthur said, half sarcastic and half an inside joke about his memory loss.

Francis stared at Arthur's face for a long time, seeming to analyze him. Arthur wished he knew what the Captain was thinking.

"You are worth how much now?" Francis asked. _Pretty sure that's information that could come back to bite me in the ass.._. Arthur thought, and decided to just go silent for this one.

"Exactly. Which is why I will keep you on my ship until the return trip to England, where I'll hand you over to the guards and take your bounty." Francis said, and Arthur was silent as he contemplated this.

"It will be a few days, of course, but until then I'm sure I can keep you entertained..." Francis said, a purr in his voice that Arthur wasn't a fan of.

"They never seem to mention on bounty posters just how attractive the thief is in reality..." Francis said after a long pause, almost to himself, as he reached out to stroke Arthur's cheek. Arthur blushed and turned away, trying to hide it by looking out the window and changing the subject.

"Er, how long will it take?" Arthur asked, and Francis followed his gaze to the window.

Francis sighed in annoyance at Arthur's quick subject change, but gave in anyways. "Under a month, if God is on our side. If not, than... Maybe two." Francis said.

Arthur nodded dumbly, not trusting himself to try and talk without somehow bringing up appearance. Francis, however, seemed to be waiting for Arthur to say something.

"'The hell do you want now?" Arthur asked, looking back at Francis.

"This is the part where people typically ask what they'll be doing during their stay." Francis said, still watching Arthur.

"So what, you want me to ask about whether or not I'll be sleeping with you? Not my thing, really." Arthur said, and Francis only seemed to get happier.

"I know you'll come around one day, _mon ami_. And I plan on being the reason you do." Francis said with a little smile.

Arthur's face heated up, and he tried to see that sentence as an innocent, not-meaning-sex-at-all sentence, but he couldn't figure it out, so he gave up on it.

Arthur's stomach suddenly growled, cutting off any sort of train of thought.

"_Oui, Oui_. That will be tended to as well," Francis said, "although first- can you cook?"

~~~Some Time Later...

Francis wasn't sure if Arthur had been telling the truth when he said yes, and in all honesty neither was Arthur.

Arthur knew some of what to do in order to make crumpets, but he didn't know if Francis had the right ingredients or anything other than an abundance of stale bread and fish that seemed to come from the beginning of Earth- and they smelled like it too.

One of Francis' crew members came in at some point, and asked Francis something in a low voice. Arthur wouldn't have understood the French anyways, but it was so low that even if he did he wouldn't have been able to hear it. Francis looked at the pirate before him and frowned. "I'm needed here right now. That can wait."

Arthur wished that Francis would just take whatever it was and run of with it so Arthur could figure this out on his own.

The pirate continued to insist, and Francis gave him a look and asked, "_que mauvais?_" and the pirate made a hand motion at Arthur and then pointed to the door, which made Francis frown.

"I... Have some things to attend to. You can cook something tomorrow." Francis said, making a dismissive motion with his hand and muttering something to the crew member before exiting the room.

Arthur was bewildered at Francis' actions- first a strong veto, then a hesitant acceptance and suddenly a full on approval. That, and the fact that Francis had just left Arthur alone with a single pirate who not only looked scrawny but didn't seem to know what to do. His face said it all- he wanted to run of after Francis, but he was required to stay with the prisoner.

His responsibility won over and he turned to look at Arthur, who'd been standing by the pantry from his previous action of digging through it fruitlessly.

"You speak English, right?" The pirate asked, and Arthur was relieved that someone other than Francis spoke his language.

"Er, right. That is... Do I know you?" Arthur asked, thinking he recognized the sailor.

"Was famous in Britain for quite some time. Happen to know the name 'Gavin Free'?" He asked, and It dawned on Arthur who he was talking to.

"The mental scientist? Yes, the one who tried to slow down time by-"

"Right. Captain found the shipwreck of mentals and took most of us in. Tons of the crew members are from that ship." Gavin said, and Arthur thought to when he'd first heard about the 'shipwreck of mentals'. It was when some ship full of mentally ill people crashed into a rocky island. Most of the passengers were never found- Francis was probably why.

"Well, nice talk, but I'm supposed to take you to the Captain's room, per his orders." Gavin said, straightening up. Arthur noticed now that Gavin's shirt was really a straight jacket with all of the buckles and extra long sleeves cut off.

"The Captain's... Wha- Why?" Arthur asked, hoping for something comforting.

"I don't know, he didn't exactly explain it. Besides, he probably just wants you in a place where the crew can keep an eye on you without having to sit around and do nothing." Gavin said, shrugging, and although all that he said was probably true, Arthur could guess Gavin wasn't mentioning the obvious for a reason.

"Um, alright." Arthur said, because Gavin seemed to be waiting for a response.

Gavin nodded, walking over to Arthur and grabbing his arm to lead him.

"I won't try and run while you're right there, you know. You don't have to-"

"I know you won't, but letting a captive walk next to you instead of leading him around the ship is frowned upon." He explained, and Arthur frowned but didn't say anything else. He focused only on attempting to think of a legitimate reason why the Captain would want to have Arthur waiting for him in his room.

**A/N: yes, I made a slow-mo guys reference, but I'm not calling it a crossover because Gavin is a very minor character. Anyways, thanks for reading!**

Translations:

_Bonjour_ - Hello

_se vous plaît_ - please

_mon ami_ - my friend

_oui_ - yes

_que mauvias?_ - how bad?


	3. The Captain's Quarters

Arthur tried his best not to think too much of exactly how his next encounter with Francis would go, but it was impossible not to. The room had a very spacious feel to it, despite not being very large.

The bed, of course, was the largest piece of furniture, with a cushy red comforter that seemed to be made of velvet. The sheets underneath were pure white, and could be seen because of the hotel style folding (not that hotel style of sheets-folding has necessarily been invented yet). Arthur had a great view from his spot on the chair, where Gavin had told him to sit and then proceeded to cuff him to the chair. When Arthur tried to struggle out of the cuffs Gavin proved that despite how scrawny he seemed he was actually pretty strong.

"It won't be as bad if you just accept it you know." Gavin had said, once he had re-seated Arthur and was forcing the hand cuffs onto him.

"I-I thought you said he only wanted me here because-"

"I meant the cuffs, but the same rule applies to that too." Gavin had said, flashing a smile as he finished chaining Arthur up.

"Anyway, sit tight. I'm sure Captain will be back soon enough." Gavin had said as he left.

Arthur looked around the room again, wondering why the windows were yellow and didn't give even the slightest view of the outside. _Probably for privacy... It's the same for the doors, anyways..._ Arthur thought. The wood was all dark wood, probably spruce, and Arthur may have even appreciated the architecture if not for his situation. He had been in there for quite some time, and was actually beginning to wish Francis would just get there already so Arthur's boredom would go away.

Arthur had to wait for at least twenty more minutes before one of the double doors opened and Francis walked in, closing the door behind him. Francis didn't really survey the room, just happened to look Arthur's way before expressing mild surprise at Arthur's being there.

"Ah, I almost forgot about this." Francis said, his once grumpy expression quickly changing into one of sinister pleasure.

"What do you even want?" Arthur asked, denying the fact that Francis was almost certainly there for what Arthur thought he was there for.

"Can't you guess?" Francis asked, taking off his hat and setting it on the desk to his left, and draping his fanciful blue overcoat over the same surface. Without those two things, he could almost pass for a typical crew member. Aside from his incredible cleanliness, of course.

Arthur shook his head. "I-I won't... I won't let-" Arthur began, but Francis chuckled to himself.

"I would be surprised if you weren't _begging_ by the time I'm done." Francis said, and Arthur blushed, looking away.

Nowhere in his memories could he find any experience with sex. Ever since he had lost his memories that night, he didn't have time for it. He was too busy planning the next break in. That is, it wasn't as if he hadn't done _anything_ since then, he just never let himself get to that level.

Arthur was startled out of his thoughts as he felt Francis sit down on his lap. Arthur jumped, and then opened his mouth to yell at Francis, but Francis began talking first.

"Arthur, I won't force you to do anything you don't want to. If you didn't look so desperate, I wouldn't even think of it. But since... Well, how about this- give me one good reason why not." Francis offered, sure that anything Arthur said next would be easily disproven. Of course, he was right, but Arthur refused to admit that.

"I'm not interested in men!" Arthur snapped, and while this could easily be a legitimate answer, Arthur knew that it wasn't really true.

The first time Arthur had been with someone since after the incident, it was a man, and let's just say Arthur wasn't struggling nearly this much. ...Or at all, really.

Francis cocked an eyebrow at Arthur. "Oh? Well then surely you can explain this." Francis said, his hand brushing against Arthur's erection. Arthur blushed; partially at the touch and partially at the accusation.

"W-Well you're bringing up m-memories!" Arthur said, and Francis leaned in so that his face was much closer to Arthur's than he'd like.

"If that was for a woman, it wouldn't be so hard. When people don't want me-" Francis said, pausing and palming Arthur, making Arthur suck in a sharp breath, "they don't act like you're acting."

Arthur's face burned, and he didn't have a good answer. "M-Maybe if you weren't g-giving me a lap dance..." He stuttered in response, and Francis chuckled.

"You need to work on your excuses." Francis said, and then leaned in, kissing Arthur sweetly.

Arthur hadn't even kissed anyone in quite a long time- not counting the woman whose attic he was living in, because those kisses were on the cheek and there weren't many of them.

Arthur didn't really know what he was doing, but he could feel himself trying to kiss Francis back. He at least knew that much.

Arthur felt like he was split in two. Half of him was ready to slit Francis' throat, the other half was just ready to be relieved of the urges coming off both him and Francis in waves.

Arthur decided as a whole that no matter what ended up happening he needed those handcuffs off. Whether to punch Francis or jerk him off; the cuffs had got to go.

_Francis isn't exactly going to trust me at this point, I have to build it up. Get him to believe I only want him._ A part of his mind claimed reasonably. _You __**do**__ only want him!_ _C'mon Arthur, don't be stupid! Just give yourself to 'im!_ Another part yelled back. Arthur cleared his mind of such things, only focusing on the task at hand: building Francis' trust.

The Frenchman reached up to hold Arthur's cheek, and then swiped his tongue across Arthur's lips. Arthur's face got redder, as an internal war waged.

_Trust, Arthur- you have to gain his trust._ A voice said, and Arthur hesitantly obeyed. Arthur opened his mouth, but that didn't stop him from using his tongue to try and dominate Francis. It didn't work too well, but you had to give Arthur credit for trying.

Arthur was uncomfortable with the feeling of Francis' tongue running over the different surfaces of Arthur's mouth; first his teeth, then the roof of his mouth, than his tongue... It tickled in a way, and Arthur wanted to hurry up and get Francis to take Arthur's handcuffs off so Arthur could... Well, he'd cross that bridge when he came to it.

Arthur tentatively touched Francis' tongue with his own, but only because Francis seemed like he was done.

Francis pulled away though, and Arthur made a noise in his throat that portrayed his frustration, at the same time attempting to pull his hands up to grab Francis' hair as he would've done with anyone else he was making out with. Of course, the chains simply made a clang and held his hands in place; as if to emphasize his frustration.

"_Mon amour_, those cuffs will hold a lot more than a simple tug." Francis said, and Arthur thought to himself, Yeah, I know, that's why you're going to get them off of me.

Francis cupped Arthur's crotch. "Excited, hm?" Francis asked, and Arthur averted his gaze, unable to make another excuse.

Francis suddenly sat up straight, and his gaze turned to the door. Francis frowned, but turned back to Arthur's reddened face and vulnerable position; and his mood lifted once more. Francis leaned in to give Arthur another quick kiss, and then stood up.

"Sincerest apologies, _mon cheri_, but duty calls... Don't worry, I'll be back eventually..." Francis assured, but it seemed more like he was comforting himself rather than Arthur.

Francis turned and grabbed his coat, flinging it around himself and putting his worn yet surprisingly clean hat onto his head. He grasped the doorknob, looking once more at Arthur, and said, "I'd say sit tight, but..."

"Sh-Shut up, you bloody..." Arthur began, but Francis was already out the door; shutting it behind him.

_Well, at least there aren't any more distractions at the moment..._ Arthur thought, and began working out a plan of escape as he silently refused any thought regarding his current riptide of emotions.

**A/N: Yes, this chapter is pretty short, but I'll try to make up for it by making the next chapter longer. And apologies if the translations are a bit off; I try to only use what I know, but I always check google translate and either of us could be wrong, so feel free to correct any mistakes in my translating. Thankies~**

Translations:

_Mon amour _- my love

_mon cheri_ - my sweetheart


	4. The First Attempt to Escape

It was only after Francis left that Arthur wondered what he'd heard that made him stand up and leave so suddenly.

_And right as it was getting interesting..._ A voice muttered, and if Arthur could slap himself he would. _That is, after I get out... _Arthur thought, reminded of the task at hand.

He knew he'd have a lock pick in his secret pouch if he only could get to it. He squirmed in his seat, trying to turn his pants at least far enough to the side so that he could reach the pouch_. If it hasn't already been emptied, that is..._ Arthur thought, but tried to stay positive. _It's my only hope..._

Arthur's pants were getting worse and worse in terms of how comfortable they were. His erection wasn't as bad as it had been, but with the combined sensation of the cloth rubbing against it and his pants getting tighter and tighter as the seams moved to the left during his attempt to reach his pouch.

Arthur had to squirm and scoot in his seat for at least another 60 seconds before he could finally reach his secret pouch. Arthur's hand immediately reached to the familiar inner seam of his pants, groping along for the little bag. He felt the flap that would open it, and tugged it so that it came undone and opened. The pouch was facing sideways, so the contents were all on one side, but there were contents, and that was what mattered. Arthur quickly found the first of his three emergency lock picks, pulling it out and shutting the pouch again.

Arthur had to twist his wrist at a strange angle to attempt to pick the lock, and the fact that he couldn't see it wasn't exactly helpful. It was difficult even for Arthur to try and pick a lock both not looking and not in the proper position. However, he still managed it, and the first handcuff opened with a snick. Arthur pulled his hands in front of him, making quick work of the other cuff, and then discarded the cuffs on the chair, returning the undamaged pick to his pouch.

Arthur stood up, happy to stretch his legs and have the freedom to walk around without being supervised. Arthur had only been on the ship for a few hours, but he already wanted to be back in England_. I'll get back there soon enough, if I can get out of here unseen..._ Arthur thought, and surveyed the room once more, this time to see if there were any hatches or trapdoors leading elsewhere.

The only door Arthur could see aside from the ones leading to the main deck was one in a corner that appeared to be a closet, but Arthur knew looks could be deceiving and went to check it out.

When he opened the door he found that it was indeed a closet; full of assorted shirts, pants, jackets, and shoes- and some parchment and ink bottles in a crate at the bottom.

Arthur had his gaze locked on a red coat, however, that seemed incredibly familiar to him. He reached out and touched it, feeling the expensive velvety material it was made out of. It was definitely the coat of a captain, but the strange thing was that Francis always wore a blue coat, not a red one. Arthur strained to remember why he knew this coat in particular, but only found the faint tickle of recognition that symbolized some sort of-

Arthur jumped at the sound of a loud thud outside the door to Francis' room. _Right, focus Arthur. Look for some sort of exit. _He thought, and looked down at the box full of rolls of paper and bottles full of black ink. Upon the first glance it appeared to just be messily strewn about the crate, but when more closely inspected one could see that they had been placed to perfectly cover the bottom of the crate.

_Clever_. Arthur thought, and gripped the crate so he could pull it out of the way. But when he picked it up, the floorboards came up with it, and it turned out that the crate itself was the trapdoor. _Not what I was expecting, but it works well nevertheless..._ He thought, and set the crate to the side to look down the hole. There was a wooden ladder leading down into a dark room, but Arthur didn't have time to question what might have been down there.

He quickly descended a few steps down the ladder, and then looked up again so he could grab the crate and replace it so it would once again hide the room below. Arthur had just settled the crate back into the right spot when he heard the sound of two swords clashing together; one of them then falling to the ground with a loud clatter. There was an exchanging of words, but by that time Arthur was already on the last rung of the ladder; his right foot hitting the ground.

Arthur turned to face the room, squinting against the darkness and waiting for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light. The sun was setting, so there was very little light coming through the floorboards of Captain Francis' room, and no light at all from the sides of the ship.

Arthur got to his knees, groping around the floor in hopes of finding a lantern there. Arthur's hand finally bumped something metal, and as luck would have it there was a small little lantern sitting in the corner of the room. Arthur felt around the bottom for the switch, and twisted it as soon as his fingers found the small knob.

Arthur looked around and found the room to be fairly empty. There were some maps pinned to the walls, all scribbled on with circles and X's and dotted lines marking all the important places. On some there were arrows with notes off to the side explaining things about the markings.

Arthur found a desk against one wall, with both a lantern and a candle sitting next to yet another map, this one unmarked. It was yellow and had lots of rips around the edges and a piece missing from inside the top left corner of the map. Arthur knew he should try to get as far away from the Captain's room as he could, but curiosity overwhelmed him and Arthur became something of a puppet, walking closer and closer to the paper in a robotic manner.

When he finally got to the desk, he looked down at the map. It was obvious why this one was on the desk; this one seemed to be an overall view of all the maps around the room. The missing piece was probably a big mystery, because none of the maps around the room revealed what was in that area.

_Arthur, what are you doing!? Remember where you are! There's no time to look around at this shit, you have to move!_ He suddenly thought, and snapped out of his trance.

He looked around the room, swinging the lantern in a circle. Arthur didn't see a door anywhere, but suspected that there could be a secret door or hidden panel nearby, so he went to all of the maps, pressing against the walls and feeling for even the slightest hint of a door handle.

Unfortunately for Arthur, his luck had run out, and there was nothing that Arthur could find, even worse, he thought he heard the sound of footsteps up above him. Arthur quickly turned out the lantern, hurrying to the desk and sitting down next to it, hoping if Francis checked the room the desk would block his view of Arthur.

Sure enough the room flooded with light as the box was lifted from its spot, and a shadow was cast where someone's head peeked down the hole. Someone shouted an order and then the shadow disappeared and the hatch was replaced.

_They gave up that easily? Well, he probably doesn't think I was smart enough to find this place._ Arthur thought smugly. He crept over to the ladder, hoisting himself up a few rungs and then waiting, listening for any sound that would show that someone was still there.

He heard a door open and close and could assume someone was leaving since after the door closed there weren't any footsteps overhead. He decided to chance it- he'd have to exit the room eventually anyways- so he put his hands against the bottom of the hatch and pushed up slowly, only opening it a crack so he could double check that no-one was in the room.

He looked around, and though he couldn't see the whole room, he saw that there wasn't anyone in the area he could see. He slowly pushed the crate over, and then climbed out of the hole, replacing the top and walking into the room, freezing at the sound of someone talking to him.

"Arthur; as confusing as ever." Francis said, and Arthur turned to see Francis reclining in the chair Arthur had been chained to before.

"You had me fooled, at least. I thought you liked me, do you not?" Francis asked, though he should've known how Arthur would react.

"Of course not, are you mental!? You bloody molested me!" Arthur exclaimed, as if bewildered Francis would even ask. Francis sighed, shaking his head.

"It's not really molesting if the second party enjoys it-" Francis said, and Arthur cut him off before he could say any other disturbing accusations.

"I didn't bloody enjoy it, I..." Arthur was going to say that he was just fooling him, but that would've been more than a little stupid.

"You were just imagining it!" Arthur concluded. Francis looked at him suspiciously, obviously suspecting that Arthur didn't say what he was going to before.

"My mistake." Francis replied, though he sounded like he didn't believe it at all. "Well, did you find anything?" Francis asked suddenly, leaning forward as if excited to hear what Arthur would say. "Did you discover any important documents? Maps of the ship telling you how to escape? I would be interested to know, because _I_ certainly never knew of the location of that room." Francis' heavy sarcasm gave away his falsehood though, and Arthur could tell Francis was at least somewhat offended that Arthur had thought that Francis wouldn't find him in there.

"Ah, but I should applaud you." He said, sitting back in his chair; anger suddenly extinguished. "Not many know about that room, much less find it on their own." He said.

"Francis, enough! Just get to the point. What's your next move? What are you going to-" Arthur began, tired of Francis' games. Unfortunately for Arthur, he didn't realize that he was testing Francis' self-control.

See, one of Francis' main pet peeves- and you could ask any one of his men and they'd agree- was when someone tried to overpower him, or dominate him in any way. And it didn't exactly help that Arthur had failed to say 'captain' when addressing him.

Francis shut his eyes, taking a huge breath and cutting Arthur off. "I would suggest you remember to add the word 'captain' next time you say that, _mon ami_." Francis said in a deadly calm voice, and then looked at Arthur with a fiery anger in his eyes. "And try to remember who has the sword; it'd do you well." He added.

Arthur rolled his eyes, not realizing what he was doing. "My god, you're avoiding the damn question!" Arthur said angrily, wanting to hurry it up and get whatever Francis was going to do over with.

Francis took a deep breath again, trying his best to keep his cool. "Arthur, you are the only person that tests my patience this often…" Francis muttered, but it was loud enough that Arthur could hear it.

_What does he mean 'this often?' This is the first time I've pissed him off- well, I don't know, maybe I somehow pissed him off when I was trying to cook with the stale bread and he just didn't show it…?_ Arthur thought, thoroughly confused. _If I ask him one more time he's likely to slit my throat, but otherwise he'll never-_

"_Oui_, _oui_, you want to know what I'm going to do because you tried to escape, no?" Francis asked, but barely gave any time for Arthur to say anything before he continued. "I could think of a million things I could do to you that you… you would not easily forget." Francis said, and a smirk crept onto his face as he thought about it. "But lucky for you, I won't do any of those things." Francis said, and paused.

"Uh, th-thanks?" Arthur said, phrasing it as a question in case he had said the wrong thing.

Francis looked at Arthur, analyzing him with his gaze. "… …I'm only going to do this once." Francis said, and Arthur braced himself for the worst. "I will let you off with a warning… but only this once." Francis said, and Arthur wasn't sure whether he was supposed to thank Francis again or if he should just keep his mouth shut. He went for the second option, and moving his gaze to the ground as Francis seemed to stare straight through him.

Arthur heard a sigh and the scrape of a chair backing up as someone stood. Arthur quickly looked up to see Francis walking towards him. His face didn't give anything away, having something of a neutral expression. Arthur automatically backed up, forgetting where he was standing, and backed into the closet, tripping over the crate-slash-entry-to-a-secret-room and falling backwards. Francis laughed, and Arthur scrambled to his feet.

"My ship does not have cages that contain beds… In other words, you have _deux_ options: there is most likely at least one bed available in the crew's quarters, or you could…" Arthur knew what Francis was going to say, he just _knew_ it- but it still somehow managed to somewhat surprise him. "Well, there is always extra room here~." Francis said, and even though he was probably kidding, Arthur's cheeks turned a faint shade of pink.

"I'll sleep with the crew, thank you." Arthur said, and realized how that sounded and quickly amended it as his blush darkened a shade. "I-I mean I'd rather sleep in the crew's quarters!" Francis didn't bother to hide his amusement at Arthur's embarrassment, and it was obvious that Francis' anger could fade as easily as it could appear.

"Are you still hungry?" Francis asked suddenly, and Arthur silently acknowledged that since his stomach had first growled his hunger had been a dull ache that he'd pushed to the back of his mind. "Gavin will show you where the cafeteria is and keep everyone off of you in general." Francis said, and Arthur wondered if Francis meant that in a violent sense or a… different… sense. _You just can't tell with people like Francis… He's a very rare type of mental…_

There was an ever-so-convenient knock at the door, and Francis turned on his heel; walking to the door and opening it to talk to the person standing outside. Arthur couldn't see the person from where he was standing, but he could guess that it was Gavin. His suspicions were confirmed when he walked closer to the door and heard Gavin's voice speaking in shaky French. _"…Je vais faire mes meilleur._" He had just said, as Francis looked back into the room. Arthur went rigid- his failed attempt at acting casual- but Francis didn't seem to care that Arthur had been creeping forward to eavesdrop.

Francis turned back to Gavin and replying by saying: "_Informer moi si il_-" Francis began, and Gavin cut him off. "I'm sure it'll be fine." He said, and Francis looked down at the shorter Brit for a second, a silent conversation whizzing between the two. Francis looked back up- seemingly out of the blue- and then walked away. Gavin poked his head into the room, and looked at Arthur.

"Well? Come on now, don't want him coming back and changing his mind, do you?" Gavin asked, and Arthur shook his head, quickly walking up to Gavin to follow him out of the room. Gavin, however, stopped him just before he could exit the doors and shook his head.

"Oh, god, I don't have to stay in here, do I?" Arthur asked, and Gavin laughed.

"Well, no, but he still doesn't trust you. You have to put the handcuffs back on." Gavin said, and before Arthur could ask, Gavin added, "But this time they'll be in front of you, so you can eat." Even though it made sense that Arthur had to put the cuffs on, he had the childish desire to cross his arms and refuse to put them on. Of course, as Arthur had learned earlier, that wouldn't exactly work, but he couldn't help wishing it would.

Arthur nodded again, walking up to Gavin and thinking about his plan to gain the captain's trust. Suddenly realization dawned on him. _Gavin said that he still didn't trust me, and although he didn't say it that meant that it could be that Gavin trusts me? I highly doubt it- in fact I think that was just a grammatical error- but this brings a whole new subject into light… I could gain the crew's trust, and, by extension, his! Oh, perfect, perfect… The only issue being the fact that I have to act compliant…_ _But I'm sure I can manage that for however long I have to…_ Arthur was able to think this over all in a matter of seconds, and the thoughts swirled around in his head as he walked with Gavin, ecstatic for all of the wonderful plans forming within his head.

** A/N: Sorry it took so long for this to come out; (I haven't posted a chapter since last year :O!) I've been trying to make sure it isn't too short or anything- that and there's been lots of family time over the holidays. I already said it, but I'm getting all of my French off of google and I don't know the grammar rules for French so I apologize for any mistakes! Anyways, please enjoy, and Happy New Years!**

Translations:

_mon ami_- my friend

_oui_- yes

_deux_- two

_Je vais faire mes meilleur- _I'll do my best

_Informer moi si il…_- Tell me if he…


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